Getting Housing is a Problem

[Shibi]

Sadly, it is how it is, and it won't change in the near future. So like grinding raid progression you need to get in there and just do it.

We did not expect the demand to be as bad as it was.

For weeks and weeks anyone who was placard clicking had known demand would be huge.

We got on at 8 and all housing was gone

The housing discords had spreadsheets that tracked the vacant properties, and those show you were wrong. And this is the thing... Most housing becomes available around 12.5 hours from the point it's vacant, 10 to 14 hours being the prime window. This means you could have come on - with your FC members - at 6pm your time and likely taken a property.

Best advice I can give is; join the housing sweep discord plus rope in your FC members to look three or four times each day, turn up to a placard around the 12 hour mark with as many FC people as you can and get to clicking for 30 to 45 minutes. The more FC members you can get clicking the greater your chance.

[Catstab]

The housing discords had spreadsheets that tracked the vacant properties, and those show you were wrong. And this is the thing... Most housing becomes available around 12.5 hours from the point it's vacant, 10 to 14 hours being the prime window. This means you could have come on - with your FC members - at 6pm your time and likely taken a property.

Best advice I can give is; join the housing sweep discord plus rope in your FC members to look three or four times each day, turn up to a placard around the 12 hour mark with as many FC people as you can and get to clicking for 30 to 45 minutes. The more FC members you can get clicking the greater your chance.

With respect, OP did amend her statement when pressed to 'all houses with no timers were gone by the time I woke up' as she was not interested in placard clicking. So while you are correct, this is covered in previous pages of the thread. Appreciate you lending some advice, too. I also supplied my reddit thread with new ward tips and general camping tips. Hopefully something helps her out!

[Seddrinth]

We waited for the patch to come out that added new wards. All houses were gone by the time we got up in the morning. The patch times make it easier for certain time zones to get houses. We work so we're not staying up all night or waking up at 5 am to get a house. Even so, I heard that many people just used the new spots to instantly relocate to and put them on a timer. Really? NO ONE thought this would be a problem?

Honestly, that is your own fault because there are many people who work that woke up early or stayed up late for the chance for a house. It was 3am my time and I made myself wake up early. I had work next day as well. So a system that rewards people who put in more effort is not an issue. The issue is some people who woke up early had internet/connection/crashes. But if you don't even make an effort, you are not going to find much sympathy.

Auto-demolish is off, so even people who no longer play, have been banned (heard of a case of this), etc have a house. I understand that people impacted by COVID should get to keep their house, but demolish the rest! There is an easy way to account for this: have a check-box when people un-sub!

This I agree with 100%. It's been what 7 months already? It's time to turn back on auto-demolish. There are current players who are paying subs who deserve the houses more than someone who left over half a year ago and who may not ever come back.

People will have multiple personal houses using alts.

This is not really an issue because even if people have alts, they still can't buy more than one personal house on the same server. So it will have no effect on your ability to buy a house. I have 3 alts on different servers and 3 houses, I do this because SE doesn't allow me to share 1 house with all 3 alts.

People get houses to sell to other people.

This is a huge problem. The people who are doing are using the fc glitch. They make these fake shell fcs, buy the house, and then sell the fc along with the house. The only way to stop this abuse is to stop allowing fc to buy house. Only 1 house per player, period. If you want to house fc mates, turn your personal house into an an fc house, allow tenants to buy rooms the same way fc house allow members to buy units. That is the only way to stop the selling of houses from shell fcs.

People relocate on to plots that people will have been clicking on a placard there for 5 hours and it doesn't matter.

I've always thought this was unfair. Why should someone who already have a house be able to bypass the timer while people who don't have houses have to suffer? I'm speaking as a player with 3 houses. They should make all players have to deal with housing timers and not allow existing house owners to bypass that.